If you're a regular reader of the adigi blog, you may have seen previous posts about the importance of Christmas marketing, and if you have left the house/ turned on the TV over the past week or so, you'll have seen that Christmas marketing is well and truly underway. Now, if your business hasn't yet begun your marketing strategy for the festive season, fear not, I am here with some tips for you, just in time for you to gear up for the upcoming months!
1. Mobile.
During Christmas 2014, mobile devices accounted for 48% of clicks and 28% conversion sales for global paid advertising. Shown by this trend not slowing down throughout ths year, it is clear that during this festive period, mobile devices are going to be more valuble than ever to businesses wanting to advertise to, and then convert these views into sales. There are various ways to do this- ensure your website is responsive and will fit to any screen being used, from mobile to tablet to computer screen. You could build an app, as discussed in last weeks blog, or if you already have an app for your business, you could promote it through the app store or on social media to drive traffic to the app, to again, attempt to increase Christmas traffic and sales.
2. Instagram.
If you're familiar with the platform, you may have noticed over the past couple of months, 'Shop Now' or 'Learn More' buttons have popped up under certain photos. If in previous years you've used Facebook ads or paid to promote your posts, this year it may be worth looking into the 'Shop Now' function on Instagram. With 75million daily users on Instagram, and the figures rapidly growing as the site gains popularity, Facebook is not growing at even nearly such a rate, and so, it is very much argued that promotion on Instagram is worth much more – Kenshoo ran analysis of 25 active client campaigns on Instagram and found that average click through rates were 2.48% which is 2.5 times higher than social advertising industry averages.
3. Use the days already set in place to your advantage.
During the season, there are days already set in place, and marketed by any and every marketing wizz out there which you can tailor to your advantage, and jump on the bandwagon so to speak. For example, Black Friday and Cyber Monday traditions, over the past few years have started to slowly swim their way across the Atlantic to us, resulting in discounts on these days to UK citizens. Make sure you use these to your advantage, drum up sales using one day discounts especially for these days- those savvy shoppers that are in the know about the day will be waiting to recieve the email to say there is money off their favourite products before they buy them. Use email marketing, social media posts, blogs, and everything inbetween to let all your followers know the code to access your discount. In the run up to these days, run campaigns building anticipation for your sale or discount, you're getting your name out there and its a win win for companies- either they'll see your campaign and buy then and there or will join in the hype and wait until the big day to make their purchase.
4. Make sure your services are up to scratch.
In a related, but important enough for its own bulletpoint sidenote, ensure your website and social media is able to be relied on coming up to the days you've promoted or last few days before Christmas where panic buyers run to the internet to pick a present. Make sure your top perfoming pages have high loading speeds, and your website is clear for a customer, don't hide buttons such as 'checkout'- if your customer can't navigate your website, they won't buy your products. If you're an e commerce business and are expecting a higher flow of sales traffic, ensure your postal service can deal with delivering your parcels with speed- last year delivery companies were highly criticised for their slow deliveries after Black Friday.
5. Be present.
It's important you start from now in regards to posting consistantly on social media. If youre lax with it and only pop your head in every so often to say hi, those who were originally excited enough about your business and brand to click follow, will become bored and unfollow you- its just the fickle nature of the social media game I'm afraid. Keep posting, and post occassional discount codes for your social media followers- if someone views this and has any thought they might, at some time in the future, order from your business, they may follow you so they can easily find a discount code in the future. John Lewis this year is planning to increase its social media spend, and launch its famous Christmas advert on social media, instead of the usual launch during an X-Factor ad break- showing the scale of social media in 2015 that brands are choosing it over TV.
